The Blow Waves
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia | INDIE
Music
Press
The Blow Waves are easily the best live band in Melbourne at the moment. Not only do they deliver the goods musically, they have a stage presence that is both endearing and totally cool. Here’s hoping it’s not too long before the next gig. - Inpress Magazine
Knife-edge guitars, psyched out keyboards and playful/dirty lyrics… their singer sports a bath robe, their bearded bassist Is clad in leather daddy cap, while their keyboardist camps it up in a football jersey. Clearly, this quartet aren’t what you’d call shy and retiring. - Inpress Magazine
The Blow Waves’ garish costumes, a bright clash between New Romantic and punk, ensure they’re hard to miss… The band has a strong queer fan base, but their cock rock sound is by no means restricted to a particular demographic. - Rip It Up Magazine
The performance is a raunchy trashfest, and is epitomised by the band’s desire to have random underwear to be thrown at them while playing. Musically, every song has a simple, amazingly catchy hook, mostly in the form of sexy riffs that make the stripping of one’s clothes seam like the only way… Thus it is fair to say that if one were to have a trashy party, one would desire The Blow Waves to provide the live entertainment. - Inpress Magazine
The disco-punk five-piece, The Blow Waves, born from the ashes of the Mavis's and Love Outside Andromeda, on the go for the past two years, are touring nationally after building a base in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide. The Mavis's formed in Ballarat by Matt 'Doll' Thomas and his sister Beki, were active from 1996 to 2001 and earned four ARIA nominations. Their single Cry was the most performed Australian work of 1998 and the 2000 tune Happiness soundtracked national ad campaigns for Coca-Cola and Hyundai. - Gold Coast Bulletin
The Blow Waves are hardly lacking in cred either. The five piece electro "post disco" outfit fronted by the steamy Matt 'Doll' Thomas of the Mavis's fame have spent the past 18 months touring with a handful of tracks. Fans can look forward to an EP release shortly. - MCV Magazine
Melbourne party band the Blow Waves pride themselves on delivering a high-energy live performance that is so hot some audience members have taken their clothes off ... The band members describe their music as "disco punk" with a "B-52s feel about it ... we are a big party band and I guess we've got a Dead or Alive sound," they said. - The Independent
Alternative pop fans will be familiar with the voice promising to create mayhem on this track. Matt 'Doll' Thomas (aka Matt from the Mavis's) is one of the creative minds behind this dark electronic pop gem. Other Melbourne rock and pop scenesters round out this band, while Pseudo Echo's Brian Canham was behind the controls. Thomas has always been able to get the balance of meaty guitar and shiny synths just right, and Little Bitch is no exception. - Drum Media
Certainly a band that makes an impression, the Blow Waves have been mixing punk, disco and glam rock since 2006. We dare you to find another band in the country with such an eccentric style (and sound to match), and putting on such a high energy rock show. - Sauce Magazine
If Julian Clary, Snagglepus and Richard Simmons formed a band they wouldn’t be anywhere near as hot as the Blow Waves ... fusing punk, disco and rock to birth a damn fine sound ... miss them and cry like Britney. - Time Out
Discography
2008 - Little Bitch (Single)
2008 - The Morning After (Single)
2009 - The Blow Waves (EP)
2013 - Island (LP) Release date 20 Feb
Photos
Bio
Immersed in dirty synths, melodic harmonies, guitar driven riffs and penetrating hooks, the Blow Waves were cast from humble beginnings on a whim at Adelaide’s Feast Festival in late 2006. Originally a festival act, the bands first notable appearance was on stage at the Forum in front of thousands at the Sydney Mardi Gras in 2008.
If you think you recognise the boys on stage you might be right. Lead singer and songwriter, Matt Thomas, shared the limelight with his sister Beki from 1996 to 2001 in successful Australian indie rock outfit, The Mavis’s. He was fifteen years old at the time and their career spanned five albums culminating in a Greatest Hits collection. Matt has four ARIA Award nominations, toured with Kylie Minogue and his single Cry was the most performed Australian work of 1998.
Lead guitarist, Jamie Slocombe, was a member of indie outfit Love Outside Andromeda in early 2000, releasing two EPs, two albums and earned a spot in Triple J’s Hottest 100. The combination of Thomas’ and Slocombe’s vocal harmonies on stage is electric.
The Blow Waves present line-up came to be in 2008 when Byron St John packed up his keyboard and moved from Sydney’s underground to Melbourne to join Thomas, Slocombe and bass player John Pants in the band. He formed a strong creative bond with Thomas and a fresh musical direction has formed, sometimes darker and slower yet sometime just as poppy and uplifting as can be.
The first single Little Bitch (independently released in 2008) was produced by Australian music icon Brian Canham (Pseudo Echo). The track has been remixed a number of times and is a favourite at gigs where fans have taken to the line, “hit me with your underwear” quite literally.
In 2009 the Blow Waves went back to the studio to capture their raw stage power with Australian producer Kalju Tonuma, who was the driving force behind three award winning albums from the Mavis’s and a string of hit singles. The result was a hot little self titled, independent EP distributed mainly at gigs and digitally as the platform was embraced by music lovers around the world.
That same year the Blow Waves toured internationally playing outdoor festival stages in Copenhagen (Denmark) and Manchester (UK); along with hot and sweaty shows in the underground live music menagerie across London and Berlin. The music was extremely well received and the Blow Waves have been invited to return ever since.
The Blow Waves have received much positive press, and even made it into the gossip columns when they were spotted hanging with Fred Schneider (the B52s) in Collingwood. Inpress said they were “easily the best live band in Melbourne at the moment” who made “the stripping of your clothes seam like the only way”. Time Out called them, simply “damn hot” and Rip It Up said their sound “is by no means restricted to a particular demographic”.
The Blow Waves returned to the studio with Tonuma in 2012 and cut their debut LP "Island" which is due for global release in time for SxSW 2013.
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